Aspect ratio when exporting full quality -- is this a bug?

Hi,
I'm new to iMovie. I'm really enjoying playing around with it and think it's a really nice tool and very intuitive. But there's one thing that is bothering me. I'm working with 16:9 aspect ratio (Widescreeen) as the project type which corresponds to how the movies were recorded (a Canon MVX4i or Optura 600 in the USA I think). Everything works fine until I try to export in full quality format (using Export). The .dv file only plays back in 4:3 aspect ratio. I tried using the Expert settings, with 16:9 set and both PAL and NTSC but QuickTime and Preview still only see the movie in 4:3 aspect. If I understand correctly, the aspect ratio is just a flag that is set somewhere.
Is this a bug or am I missing something? I don't have QT Pro by the way?
One more question: in expert settings for DV Export settings, does anyone have a recommendation for what I shold pick for DV Format, and Scan mode?
Thanks very much in advance,
David
Powerbook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.4)  

Hi David,
This isn't entirely unique to DV. But in simplistic terms what happens is that the widescreen footage that you capture with your camera is the same resolution as square screen. The number of pixels (the dots that make up the picture) for PAL, which is the format used in Portugal I believe, is 720 x 576.
The pixels are squashed into a kind of oblong shape but then when played on widescreen kit the pixels become square causing the picture to stretch sideways. When you view the footage in QT it simply shows the picture as is - meaning that it outputs the picture as 720x576 with the oblong display.
However, when you view the footage in iMovie there's a flag in the file that tells iMovie that the footage is wide and therefore to stretch it accordingly.
There's a differing opinion of whether this display difference in QT is a bug or a feature. As Dan says, if you want to display widescreen footage in QT you're better off exporting a widescreen QT movie using the expert settings:
From within iMovie...
- Select File --> Export from the menu
- In the Quicktime section choose Compress Movie For "Expert Settings"
- Click the Share button
- In the save dialog box that pops up Select "Movie to QuickTime Movie" in the Export section
- Click Option...
- In the Movie Settings dialog box click on settings
- Select DV - PAL from the compression type
- Keep the Frame Rate at Current
- In the Compressor settings choose your Quality
- Set the scan mode to Interlaced
- Set the Aspect Ratio to 16:9 ( this is the bit that tells QT to play in widescreen)
- Click OK
- In the sound section click the Setting button
- In the sounds settings dialog box set the Format to Linear PCM
- Set the channels to Stereo (L R)
- Set the Rate to 48.000kHz
- Set the Sample Rate Converter settings to Quality Normal and the Linear PCM Settings to a sample size of 16 bits.
- Uncheck all the other options (Little Endian, Floating Point and Unsigned)
- Click OK
- Uncheck the Prepare for Internet Streaming box
- Click OK and set a destination for your file.
- Click save to compress the file.
The resulting file that is created above should now show in QT as widescreen. However you should bear in mind that you should work off the raw DV file rather than this new created one in iMovie. As a rule of thumb you should be thinking a little bit about the output media of the file. So for example if your final output medium is DVD then you can continue to work in iMovie and iDVD without problem. If you want to create a QT file for viewing on your computer then it's advisable to create a seperate QT file for this pupose.
If you'd like to know a little more about the way aspect ratios works here's some links for you:
Wikipedia
World easiest explanation of anamorphic 16:9
Hope this makes a little more sense now and sorry if I've covered stuff you already know. Hopefully this information will be of use to you but post back if you need more help.
Cheers.
David.
PowerMac G4 Dual 1.25Ghz / 1GB RAM   Mac OS X (10.4.5)   PowerBook 12" 1Ghz / 768MB RAM

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